The Curse Keepers Collection (40 page)

My body rebelled and I vomited onto the sidewalk until I dry heaved.

The sedan engine started and drove away. Tony had left Vinnie and his fingers behind.

“Ellie, can you get up? We need to go.” Collin’s voice was gentle but insistent.

“Daddy.” I had no doubt that Okeus would go after him. It was a matter of when.

“Let’s get in the truck and you can call him, okay?”

I nodded but began to shake violently. I crawled to my knees and tried to stand. My legs wouldn’t support my weight, and I collapsed as I tried to hold back my sobs. My forearm landed on a dead bird. I shrieked and scooted backward, bumping into Vinnie’s frozen body.

I screamed.

Collin’s hand covered my mouth, and I looked up at him in panic. His eyes were wild and I was relieved to see he was as freaked out as I was.

“I’m going to help you to your feet. First, I’ll drop my hand, but you can’t scream, okay?”

I nodded, tears flowing down my cheeks.

He let go of my mouth and grabbed both of my arms, lifting me up. I took a step, swaying as my vision began to fade. My knees buckled, but Collin bent and scooped me up against his chest while I fought the darkness invading my head.

Collin grunted as he squatted to retrieve the bag he’d dropped. He hurried us to the truck, fumbling with the door handle before setting me on the seat. He tossed the bag at my feet, shut my door, and ran around to climb into the driver’s seat.

He tore out of the parking lot. “Ellie, can you roll up your window?” he asked while rolling up his.

I nodded and grappled with the knob, spinning it around. How fucking hard was it to roll up a fucking window? I let out a sob, then got upset and frustrated that I was crying. I hated crying. Crying was for babies, and I’d already met my crying quota for the next six months.

When I got the window up, I reached for my purse and pulled out my phone, calling Claire first.

“Claire, listen to me.” I tried to calm down but my fear raised my voice an octave. “Whatever you do, do not go outside! Don’t answer the door for anyone!”

“Ellie, what’s going on?”

“They’re going to try to hurt you, Claire. You and Daddy and Myra.”

“Do you want me to go over to your dad’s house?”

“
No
!” I took a deep breath. I needed to calm down. “No. You can’t go outside. Promise me you won’t go outside until the sun comes up.” But even the daylight wasn’t safe anymore. The wind god found me in broad daylight—twice. But the darkness was when they were strongest. “
Promise me
.”

“I promise. Are you okay, Ellie? What happened?”

“I’m . . . fine.” I’d already freaked out Claire enough. No sense telling her what just happened. “I just need to know you’re okay.”

“I’m fine. Drew is fine, although he thinks I’ve gone bat-shit crazy with the salt. Your dad and Myra were okay when I saw them this afternoon. Your dad was even kind of with it and wanted to know if you were working on closing the gate.”

“You’re kidding?” While I was grateful he was lucid enough to protect himself, I was sorry I wasn’t there to talk to him. Even though Collin had become forthcoming, Daddy probably had Dare Keeper answers I needed.

“I took a chance and told him that the spirits might be after him and Myra. He marked up the doors with the symbols Collin put on yours.”

“He did?”

“Yeah, so see? He’s safe. We’re fine. Just take care of you, okay?”

“I love you, Claire.”

“I love you too.”

I hung up and turned to Collin. “My dad was aware of what was going on today. He marked his doors.” My eyes sank closed. More than anything, I wanted to be with Daddy, for him to show me what he’d done. For him to hug me and tell me everything was going to be okay.

Collin pulled me toward him, putting his arm around my back. “See? It’s okay. We’re all safe.”

But we weren’t. Not really. We wouldn’t be safe until that fucking gate was closed.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY
-S
EVEN

To my annoyance, I cried for about twenty minutes. Every time I thought I had it under control, the dam I’d built up for my tears would crash open and I’d cry again. I tried to find my anger—that this was really happening, that I was the center of two life-threatening dramas—but it stayed buried deep, just like it had after my mother’s death.

I hadn’t seen a dead body since she died in front of me fifteen years ago. I purposely didn’t attend funerals, even refusing to go to my grandparents’ several years ago. I avoided hospitals. But tonight that man had died in front of me—holding on to my arm—and the shock and horror of the night my mother died raced into the void of nothingness in my head. I’d suppressed so much about that night. It had been the only way for me to survive, but now bits and pieces flitted around the edges of my thoughts.

The wind howled outside but my ears strained to hear other noises.

The grandfather clock. Tic. Tic. Tic.

A tree branch whacked the glass outside my bedroom window. Thomp. Thomp. Thomp.

I hid in my closet, my eyes squeezed shut. The door was wide open, but the room was dark and I huddled in the far back corner.

My mother’s labored breathing came from the hall.

And another sound. The most terrifying. Drip. Drip. Drip.

I stared at the floor in front of me. Dark colored droplets splatted on the hardwood floor, forming a tiny pool. I lifted my gaze. A man with a hood held a big knife in his hand. Lightning flashed outside the window, casting him in an eerie white light. His clothes were dark, his face hidden. Every part of him was black and gray except for the crimson blood dripping from his hand and the knife.

I screamed.

“Ellie, it’s okay. You’re okay.” Collin’s voice interrupted the rush of images, his hand brushing my head.

I jolted upright, wiping my hair out of my face. I was sweating like a pig, and my hair was plastered to my cheek. We were still in the truck, which was like a sauna with the windows rolled up. “What happened?”

“You fell asleep. Did you have a nightmare?”

I nodded, looking out the windows. My hands shook again, and I took a deep breath. My limited memories of the night of my mother’s death didn’t include any part of what I’d just dreamed. Had it really happened that way? Or had my subconscious mixed with my fear from tonight and the last few days and added to my existing trauma? Did it really matter? I focused on the road in front of us, trying to think about anything else but the pictures in my head.

“Was it about tonight?”

I shook my head, but my fear made it exaggerated. I needed to get my shit together. “No. It was about my mother.”

“Ellie—”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I swung my head around to take in the scenery. “Where are we?”

“About five minutes from Manteo.”

“I’ve been asleep that long? Why didn’t you wake me?”

“I didn’t see the point. Not until your nightmare. It took me several seconds to wake you up. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Okay?” I laughed, but my voice shook. I pressed my knuckle to my mouth, nipping the skin on the back of my finger. “
Okay
? How can I be okay? Dead birds rained from the sky. A man died right in front of me—holding my arm. He had his Manitou sucked out of him right there while we watched, and his body froze—
and he was still holding my arm
—until you broke his fingers to get me loose.
You broke his fingers, Collin
.” Nausea bubbled with my rising hysteria. “
How can I be okay
?”

Collin’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. His jaw clenched, and I’d never seen him look so uncertain in the time I’d known him. So lost.

“I’m scared, Collin. I’ve never been more scared in my life.”

His hand found mine and he encompassed it, squeezing tight as though I were his lifeline. And then it occurred to me that I was so busy going through my own personal freak-out that I’d never once stopped to think that Collin was going through this too. He was always so confident, so cocky. I never questioned that this might be just as hard for him. Sure, he’d heard all the stories and made all the preparations, but it was one thing to hear the tales and another to actually live through it.

“Are
you
okay?”

He turned to me, surprise on his face.

“Tonight had to freak you out just as much as it did me.”

“Yes, but not the same way. I had to stand there and watch Marino’s guy grab you,
touch you,
threaten you. I couldn’t get past Tony to help you. I couldn’t save you. The spirit did.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Collin?”

“If Okeus’s messenger hadn’t shown up, you’d be with Marino right now.”

“We would have figured something out.”

He didn’t answer, but he didn’t look convinced.

“Saying Okeus’s messenger saved me is like saying a lion saves a baby gazelle when the lion shows up to eat the hyena.”

“Ellie.” He swallowed and his fingers squeezed my hand tighter. “You told the spirit that Okeus needs you alive to open the gate the rest of the way. I think you might be right.” He shifted in his seat and cast a glance at me. “What if his appearance wasn’t a coincidence?”

“That would make Okeus omnipotent, Collin,” I whispered. “Even locked behind the gate.”

“He’s a god, Ellie.”

I couldn’t let my head go there, thinking the gods were actually watching my every move. “No. I think the messenger showed up to ask for my decision. It was pure coincidence that he arrived when he did.”

Collin turned down the street toward my apartment. Manteo was locked up for the night, all the good citizens asleep in their beds. Clueless to the terror outside their bedroom windows.

“He’s angry, Ellie. But tradition says that he’s a reasonable god.”

I tried to jerk my hand from Collin’s, but he refused to let go. “How can you say that?”

We had already reached my apartment and Collin parked in the empty space next to my car. He turned off the engine and turned to me, still holding my hand. He used his free hand to stroke the side of my face, his eyes imploring me to listen.

“Do you remember when I told you that they weren’t meant to be locked away? That locking them up had thrown the world off balance?”

I nodded.

“Have you ever once considered that maybe we shouldn’t close the gate?”

My mouth dropped open. Who was this man and what was he saying?

“Hear me out.” He released my hand and cradled my face. “If we fail this, Ellie, Okeus
will
come after you. Maybe you should make a deal with him. To save you.”

“
What
?” I looped my hands over his wrists. “At what price, Collin? At what cost? I save myself to doom countless others? How could I live with myself?”

“How can I live with myself if anything happens to you?”

“
I
am not your responsibility.”

Tears filled his eyes and he started to say something before he cleared his throat and looked away. When he turned back, the raw emotion on his face stunned me. “You’re my responsibility more than you know. More than
I
knew when I walked into the New Moon less than a week ago. One day, when you hate me for coming into your life, let alone letting you seal your soul to mine, when hearing my name fills your heart with pain, and you never want to see my face again . . . 
even then
, you will be my responsibility.”

My breath caught in my throat. “You’re scaring me, Collin.”

“It’s okay.” His lips were soft on mine. “I don’t mean to scare you. I’m trying to let you know what you mean to me. I’m the reason for all of the chaos in your life. I walked into your restaurant and broke the curse. I took you to Marino. I’m the sole cause of the danger you’re facing, but God help me, I’m not sorry.” His eyes burned bright. “If it all goes away tomorrow . . . ” His voice broke and he swallowed. “I will never be sorry that I had this chance with you. And for that alone, you will hate me someday.”